


Legends

by mortally_wounded



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 03:59:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11615424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mortally_wounded/pseuds/mortally_wounded
Summary: The Nephilim are not to be feared but they are not to be trusted, that's what Cara Ward, the nearly 800-year-old warlock with a heart too pure to rust, had learnt her whole life, and falling in love with Alec Lightwood betrayed everything that she had ever learnt. She had fallen hard, and she had fallen fast, and she had fallen completely like she never had before. But sometimes even fallen angels can still be angelic.





	1. Chapter 1

_I can still feel the crunch of the pine needles under my feet, I can feel the rough back against my hands as I try to be as quiet as I can, guiding my why through the trees on the dim, half lit day. The tops of the trees, though not fully grown, are already blocking out most of the sun, but I have been in this forest too many times to loose my way. I run my hands against the tree trunks, following the faint, beautiful sound of giggling beginning to grow louder as I drew closer to it._

_I hear a crack of a branch. And swerve around the tree right in front of me, scooping a small boy up in my arms. He giggles even more and I start to giggle with him, feeling his arms wrap around my neck to give himself extra support even though he knows I would never dare drop him._

_We make our way back to the house, following the thin strains of smoke draining into the sky from the fire inside. It is nearly nightfall when we get back, and Henry is asleep in my arms, his head in the crook of my neck and his breath slow and deep. My precious boy._

_I lay him down in his small bed when we are him, carefully placing his head on the pillow and pulling the thin blanket over him. "Momma?" His voice is small and tired, precious and fragile._

_I put my hand on his cheek and smile at him. "Supper soon, love. You rest."_

_"Can you sing me a song, Momma?"_

_I sit down on his bed. "Which song shall it be tonight, love?"_

_Henry rubs his eyes, brushing his overlong hair onto his pillow. "The show we watched last night. When the girl is singing with the other girl."_

_I smile at him again and shuffle towards him, softly beginning to sing the lyrics to the song as I methodically pat his hair._

"The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree, 

Sing all a green willow: 

Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee, 

Sing willow, willow, willow: 

The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur'd her moans; 

Sing willow, willow, willow; 

Her salt tears fell from her, and soften'd the stones; 

Sing willow, willow, willow; 

Sing all a green willow 

Sing willow, willow, willow, 

Sing willow, willow, willow: 

Sing willow, willow, willow,

"It's a lovely song, isn't it?"

_But the small boys breathing had slowed and deepened once again, rocked into a peaceful slumber by the soft tones of his mother's voice._


	2. Chapter 2

Cara slumped back deep into her couch, closing her eyes and taking in the small moment of rest she had been given. Excessive portal travelling had always had her a little nauseous, but going from New York to Paris to London to Scotland, back to London and eventually arriving at the apartment in Brooklyn that she had only left three days before had mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually and magically drained her completely. If she listened close enough she was sure she would hear all of her body parts individually screaming. This was all Magnus' fault.

And just as she allowed a fantasy world into her mind - a world where her best friend _wasn't_  the High Warlock of Brooklyn and she  _didn't_ have to do half of the work for him because sometimes he just loved to be a pain in her ass and he equally loved to ignore the fact that she was not, in fact, the High Warlock of a borough of New York but was the actual High Warlock of New York herself - the very same eccentric best friend stormed through the doors to her apartment with the most amount of unnecessary flourish possible for a living creature to create.

They both made extremely loud noises. Cara's was more like an annoyed groan as she flipped herself over so that she was face first in her couch, while Magnus' was more like a "Heyyyyyy," that conveyed that he loved to see Cara suffer.

"GO AWAY, MAGNUS," Cara yelled into her couch. "I AM NOT IN THE MOOD FOR THIS RIGHT NOW."

"Too bad," Magnus said with a smile that, too, portrayed that he loved to see Cara suffer. And promptly fell backwards into the armchair adjacent to the couch.

Cara rested herself on her elbows and looked up, blowing some hair out of her eyes, and looked Magnus right in the eyes. "You would not believe how much I want you to go into a desert in Vegas some place and never come back. And I'm talking until the day I die. Until the world stops spinning and the entire universe implodes in on itself.  _Never._ "

"Aw. Love you too, hun."

"Screw you." 

Cara could practically feel his grin.

"Come on," Magnus almost exclaimed. "You've got a meeting at the New York Institute in... An hour and six minutes."

"What?" Cara said, making it sound more like a short, sharp statement of disbelief rather than a question. She looked up at Magnus from her couch again. "New York- I thought that was next month!" And back in her couch she went.

The chuckle that Magnus emitted after that made Cara want to punch him square in the nose. "It's August remember? A nice bi-annual sit down with Maryse and Robert Lightwood to discuss Nephilim and Downworlders in New York. Ringing any bells?"

Cara let it sink for a minute. She groaned loudly. "I thought that meeting was supposed to be a week in Idris with the heads of the institute and the other High Warlocks in New York."

"Not this time."

Another minute. Another groan. Another questioning of life decisions. "Okay!" Cara shouted as a way of waking herself up again, sitting up from her more than satisfactory spot and pushing the loose hair out of her face. She looked at Magnus. Then noticed he was still smiling. "I hate you so much."

***

"Don't leave me to face the Lightwoods," Cara started, grabbing onto Magnus' hands and looking at him with pleading eyes. "Please, Mags, I'm begging you. I can barely look at them. It's the most awkward thing. Please, please, please, please, please."

Magnus just smiled at Cara and started walking backwards, letting his hands slip out of Cara's annoyingly. Eventually, Magnus was just walking back down the path to the Institute and slowly but cockily waving at Cara while she pictured all the ways she could murder Magnus when she got home.

She turned around so that she was staring at the Institute door, picturing the last time she had been inside. God, It must have been decades ago.

The institute doors opened just in time to save Cara the embarrassment of having to go in by herself, and for the first time, she was pleased to see Maryse Lightwood.

"Maryse," Cara smiled widely, slightly fakely. "It's been a while. So good to see you again."

Maryse smiled at Cara widely, slightly fakely. "It has. And it is. Please, come in."

The institute was definitely different than what it used to be. There were a lot more computers... Everywhere. Some of the tech looked more sophisticated than anything that she had ever seen. In fact, everything in the Institute looked intimidatingly sophisticated, even the people, and it made Cara feel extremely out of place.

"Miss Wa-. Cara. My office is just through here." Cara tore her eyes away from the interior of the institute and looked back at Maryse. Maryse had turned her smile back on, but Cara's was now completely real.

"Right. Sorry. It's just been a while since I was here." Maryse turned up her smile and stepped aside to let Cara into her office. 

Cara took a seat at the desk. She remembered being in that office, it was the one thing that hadn't changed. She put the folder she was holding on the table and began flicking through it, finding the barrier that separated the two sections of  _Manhattan_  and  _Brooklyn_. 

Maryse sat across from her, placing two glasses and a bottle of red wine on the desk. "Where shall we begin?"

{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}

"Double vodka on the rocks. Don't bother with the... Accessories."

Cara leant back against the bar, looking towards the hoards of sweaty and drunken people that had crowded Pandemonium in the past few hours. She watched just as Magnus released a Nephilim, Circle by the looks of his runes, and quietly yet aggressively threw a few threats his way. Magnus watched them go, then turned and came walking towards Cara. "I'll have what she's having," Magnus said to the barkeep and, too, turned to lean against the bar with Cara.

"I see you took care of the Nephilim," Cara said, smiling at her friend proudly. 

"Circle," Magnus almost spat. "Slimy bastards." 

Cara hmmed in response. Their drinks arrived, and Cara grabbed her drink and downed a shot worth of Vodka straight away, not showing any signs that it affected her, while Magnus leisured sipped his. 

Magnus held the glass out in front of him, shaking it around a few times so the ice clanked against the cold glass. "Vodka on the rocks," Magnus laughed, taking another sip. "Lightwoods must have been hell."

"It was only Maryse, actually. Robert had something that I didn't pay attention to in Idris. I guess to some degree that was better."

This time is was Magnus' turn to hmm. He lifted his glass up to take another sip then stopped, following a flash of red that had caught his attention in the midst of his club. "Isn't that your little red head friend?"

Cara followed Magnus' line of view, squinting slightly so that she could see better, and sure enough, she saw a very panicked Clary Fray running through Pandemonium. Cara sighed, simply following Clary with her eyes for a moment, then threw her head back to swallow the rest of the transparent liquid in her glass and place it back on the bar with a thud. "God damn Shadowhunters."

  {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}  

It seemed that Cara had grossly underestimated the entire situation. She must have just missed Jocelyn, because when she got to the loft that had used to be the Fray residence the ashes were still steaming in piles of black and grey on the floor. The smell reminded her of the 70's.

As she made her way through her second circuit of the loft she realised that Clary's bedroom was by far the worst. Given the fact that Jocelyn was one of the most stubborn people she had ever met and that the Circle had shown up at Magnus' club not even an hour before, Cara didn't find it hard to believe that the Circle had found Jocelyn and that Jocelyn had tried to burn any sign of her daughter's existence by setting fire to their home and taking special precautions with Clary's room. It hadn't worked very well, even some of Clary's books and drawings had survived, but Jocelyn must have been in a hurry.

Cara cautiously walked into Clary's room, being extra careful for any weak spots in the wooden floorboards or Circle members who had decided to do another sweep of the place. Once she had determined that the room was free of any and all life signs she made her way towards Clary's bed. Cara ran her fingers over Clary's now ashen sheets and comforter, feeling the fine dark powder between her fingertips.

"Mom! Mom!" Was the first thing that Cara heard apart from the crackle of burning embers for the last forty-five minutes. It nearly made Cara jump. "Mom!" She heard again and finally realised that it was Clary screaming.

Cara made a move for the living room, then heard another voice from a person that she hadn't noticed was in the loft. "They took Jocelyn," Dot said all too calmly.

Something didn't feel right. Cara carefully walked across the remainder of the room and pressed her back against the wall beside the door frame so that she could hear the conversation better, feeling like a fox stalking its prey.

"Who took her?"

"Rogue Shadowhunters searching for the Mortal Cup."

_The Mortal Cup? That thing's been lost for decades._

"What the Hell are you talking about?"

"Think, Clary. Did your mother ever talk about a cup? A very important cup? It's gold, almost like a chalice."

_If Jocelyn had the Mortal Cup wouldn't Dot be the one person to know about it?_

"No! No, I don't know anything about a cup, Dot. One of the antiquities downstairs?"

"No, no. Not those. Think, Clary."

Nothing about this felt right.

"I can't think! Someone kidnapped my mother!"

"You know more than you think you do, Clary Fray."

"Clary," Cara said cautiously as she stepped out into the living room, startling Clary but seemingly leaving Dot unphased. "Clary, get back."

"Cara?" Clary stammered, looking at her still slightly shocked.

"Clary, you need to get behind me," Cara said, slowly walking towards Clary as to put herself between her and Dot.

"What? Why?"

"Because," Cara started, now standing right in front of Clary and staring right at Dot. "Whatever that is. It's not Dot."

The room was completely silent for a moment, for one moment just long enough for the fear to sink in. Then whatever it was standing in front of them wearing Dot's face gave a sadistic smile. The sound that came out of its throat was hoarse and scratchy. Demonic. "Claria Hawtin. He's been looking for you."

And before Cara had any time whatsoever to process what it had just said it pounced at them, teethed flaps of skin protruding from its mouth to confirm Cara's idea that it was, in fact, a demon.

Cara tried to shoot some magic its way, but when she did there was a golden spark and then it felt like a candle going out inside of her. The demon came straight at her, now completely transformed into full blown demon mode, and wrapped its tail around Cara's legs and tripped her over, quickly taking care of her and going towards Cara. She could have sworn she heard a demonic laugh come from the demon as it rushed past her.

Clary screamed. Then for the second time that day, she was pleased to see a Shadowhunter. He appeared from the shadows, seraph blade glowing in hand. Cara recognised him as the blonde from the Institute earlier that day. There was another scream, and when Cara could look to see what was happening the was a new pile of ash along with the others on the ground, and the Shadowhunter standing over a very unconscious Clary Fray.


End file.
